PlayStation 4's upcoming lineup is bleak, but not for long

A barren list of exclusives is due for a significant jolt this summer.

By Colin Moriarty

When I saw The Order: 1886 behind closed doors in February, I wasn't impressed. I really liked what developer Ready at Dawn was trying to do -- I found myself quite enamored with the game's alternate history storyline and neo-Victorian setting -- but the demo I witnessed wasn't in good shape. It was obvious The Order: 1886 wasn't going to come out this year, and I predicted that it would be pushed to 2015.

Now that this has unfortunately come true -- The Order: 1886 has indeed been delayed -- PlayStation gamers, myself included, have looked forward to this fall (and beyond) to find that… well… there's pretty much nothing coming out in terms of exclusive triple-A games. With the exception of Evolution Studios' Driveclub, a promising and pretty (yet extremely delayed) driving simulator due out this fall, PlayStation 4 owners have nothing else to look forward to in the realm of marquee exclusives in 2014.

...seemingly dormant Sony first party studios are quietly working on their next projects...

I can understand the palpable apprehension running through the PlayStation community about PS4's upcoming lineup. No amount of silly list wars will change the fact that things seem awfully quiet moving forward. But let's not fret just yet. E3 is right around the corner (and Gamescom and TGS after that), seemingly dormant Sony first party studios are quietly working on their next projects, and a handful of recent leaks (like Project Beast, for instance) indicate that the horizon is brighter than we think. Plus, with PlayStation 4 selling at historic levels without any major announcements (and even some bad news), Sony's hand hasn't been forced. Why reveal the future when the market doesn't yet demand it? If you let the excitement and anticipation build up, it can -- and will -- sustain momentum.

To its credit, Sony doesn't shy away from delaying games to make sure they're in tip-top shape -- The Last of Us was delayed, and that delay let it turn into arguably the generation's best game -- but these decisions don't happen in a vacuum. Studying the landscape surrounding the respective windows in which games were originally supposed to launch is critical. Driveclub's aforementioned push from PS4's launch lineup seemed injurious, until PS4 owners realized that there were plenty of great third party and indie games to keep themselves busy with in between Killzone: Shadow Fall and Infamous: Second Son. I suspect Sony's willingness to give Ready at Dawn more time on The Order: 1886 indicates that the company is holding a few unexpected cards that it'll be ready to show the world starting at E3, including games set for launch in the last four months of the year.

Combine that line of thinking with the fact that we know precious little about what Sony's fully-owned studios are doing. That, too, can translate into exciting announcements in the coming months, announcements that can be made in time for late 2014 launches. All we really know in addition to Evolution Studios' Driveclub is that Naughty Dog is working on The Last of Us Remastered and Uncharted 4 -- the latter of which is unlikely to see the light of day before late 2015 -- and that's pretty much it (I wouldn't consider Sony London's SingStar reboot a triple-A exclusive, though I'm glad it exists). That leaves us to wonder about Japan Studio, Polyphony Digital, Sony Bend, Sony Santa Monica, Guerrilla Games' second team, Media Molecule, Sony San Diego, Guerrilla Cambridge, and Sucker Punch, not to mention Sony's litany of dedicated second party studios that also toil away on exclusives.

Why reveal the future when the market isn't forcing you to?

In other words, we don't know much, but that's okay. Now's the time when we'll start to learn what the future holds. And that's exciting, especially if you already feel like you're getting bang for your buck with PlayStation 4.

We've already gotten a bit of a glimpse of the future with trademark leaks, something that tends to happen to every videogame publisher under the sun. Four trademarks in particular -- Bloodborne, Guns Up!, Entwined, and Kill Strain -- have all made their way out in the last couple of months. This is exactly how The Order: 1886 leaked last year, mind you. Have faith that some -- or maybe even all four -- of these games will see the light of day at E3 and Gamescom.

With Microsoft recently solidifying and altering its approach, Sony is about to have renewed competition from its arch-rival. But the evidence -- anecdotal as it is -- tells us that Sony has only begun to discuss its own future. In the coming weeks, we'll have a brighter and more vivid idea of what that future just might be, and I suspect it will quell many fears surrounding PlayStation 4's lineup of triple-A exclusives moving forward.